The following background information is provided to assist the reader to understand the invention described and claimed herein. Accordingly, any terms used herein are not intended to be limited to any particular narrow interpretation unless specifically so indicated.
There is presently known in the prior art, typically on transit vehicles utilizing electronic controls, that electrically propelled transit vehicles and locomotives are braked by a combination of dynamic brakes and friction brakes. On these transit vehicles, the friction brake effort varies based upon braking effort requested and the amount of dynamic braking supplied. As a result, it is difficult to use simple distance or time based intervals to inspect the friction brake material for wear. In the prior art, life remaining for friction brake material in a transit vehicle is determined currently by scheduled visual inspection, followed by a “best guess” as to whether the brake material will last until the next scheduled inspection. If there is a failure in the dynamic friction brake equipment and this failure goes unreported there is a heightened risk for equipment damage due to uneven friction brake usage between different parts of the same train consists. Therefore, making spot inspections unreliable. In the prior art, if the brake system equipment failure were to occur just after a scheduled train inspection, there is the potential to completely wear the brake shoe/pad away before the next scheduled inspection due to continual changes in dynamic and friction braking effort.